While an air conditioner is not too complicated a machine, many homeowners do not know much about how their air unit actually cools their home. This is perfectly fine if you do not want to deal with maintenance yourself, but there are a lot of reasons to become more familiar with your unit, including the different air conditioner coils at work inside. While most know that their air conditioner has coils of some kind, few could tell you what they do.
In actuality, an air conditioner has coils of two kinds: an evaporator coil and a condenser coil. Knowing the difference can help you assess the health of your air conditioner and keep your system in good working order. There is some amount of cleaning you can do yourself to keep air conditioner coils clean and functional, but these are delicate parts and for repairs or deeper cleaning, contacting a service company is worthwhile.
In the greater St. Louis area, Galmiche & Sons is here for all your heating & air conditioning needs, including cleaning and replacement for air conditioner coils. First though, let’s look at what these coils do within the unit.
The Two Types of Air Conditioner Coils
As we have noted, there are two kinds of air conditioner coils at work in any cooling system: the evaporator coil and the condenser coil. In general, what these coils do is distribute heat. So, while they are called “air conditioner coils”, they don’t look exactly like our common picture of a coil. Instead, they are arranged to maximize the surface exposed to air. So, the “coil” is a length of metal tubing bent back and forth along a grid to create a large surface for heat transfer.
The two types of coil work together to cool air in the following steps:
- The evaporator coil inside your indoor unit contains extremely cold refrigerant. As air is forced over it, the coil simultaneously cools the air while absorbing heat into the refrigerant.
- From there, the heated refrigerant inside this coil travels out to your outdoor unit.
- Here it passes through a compressor, which condenses the refrigerant into a hot gas.
- This pressurized gas is then fed through the condenser coil.
- A fan blows air over this coil, absorbing the heat from the refrigerant and cooling it.
- The hot air is expelled outside, while the refrigerant heads back inside through an expansion chamber to cool further and restart the process.
In short, this is how all air conditioner coils work, and you can probably see why it is so important to keep them clean and clear of debris. Any kind of grime or coating affects the ability of the coils to transfer heat, undermining your air conditioner’s ability to work efficiently.
Proper Maintenance for Air Conditioner Coils
Removing debris from the outdoor unit is one thing you can do to keep the system working efficiently. You can hose down the outdoor unit to help remove dirt and grime. For a deeper clean however, you should bring in a professional to avoid damaging the coils. Galmiche & Sons specializes in this kind of air conditioner servicing. So give us a call at 314-993-111 to have our experts inspect and clean your air conditioner coils to keep you happy and cool.
Contact Galmiche & Sons to Learn More About Air Conditioner Coils
If you want to schedule an appointment to have your air conditioner checked or have more questions about the coils on your air conditioner, or anything else HVAC-related, contact us, today. We have been St. Louis’ heating & air conditioning professionals for over 60 years and look forward to serving you!
